Google & Meta · political advertising
Who’s paying to reach you
What New Zealand’s parties spent on campaign advertising on the two big platforms — $4,855,922 across 7 parties. The figures come from Google’s own transparency data and Meta’s Ad Library, matched to parties by rules written out in the open. Taxpayer-funded parliamentary ads are counted separately, and left out.
Data as at23 July 2026· Meta refreshed by hand, 19 July 2026
Campaign spend by party
A party’s Google and Meta figures add up — they are different platforms. Advertising placed under an individual candidate’s own name is not attributed to a party, so these are a floor.
| Party | Meta | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| National | $356,400 | $1,013,388 | $1,369,788 | |
| ACT | $586,800 | $665,467 | $1,252,267 | |
| Labour | $553,000 | $456,814 | $1,009,814 | |
| Green | $407,600 | $420,018 | $827,618 | |
| TOP | $102,600 | $94,939 | $197,539 | |
| NZ First | $44,400 | $71,376 | $115,776 | |
| Te Pāti Māori | $14,200 | $68,920 | $83,120 |
The market over time
All political and issue advertising on Google in New Zealand, by week — parties, broadcasters, the Electoral Commission and advocacy groups together, since 2020. Meta reports only a lifelong total, so it has no trend line. The busiest week was 11 October 2020 at $233,800.
The biggest advertisers
Most political-issue advertising is not by a party. The largest advertisers on each platform, with the party shown where one is identified — everything else is a broadcaster, agency or advocacy group.
- Television New Zealand Limited$1,001,200
- ACT NEW ZEALAND$451,800
- NEW ZEALAND LABOUR PARTY INCORPORATED$400,800
- NEW ZEALAND NATIONAL PARTY$356,400
- Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand$294,000
- New Zealand Labour Party$152,200
- ACT New Zealand$135,000
- The Greens, The Green Party of Aotearoa /New Zealand Incorporated$113,400
Meta
- Greenpeace Aotearoa$1,710,566
- Electoral Commission NZ$1,176,403
- UNICEF Aotearoa$941,562
- New Zealand National Party$858,690
- Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand$634,138
- EECA (Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority)$590,355
- ACT$588,667
- New Zealand Labour Party$588,106
How this is counted
Google publishes an open dataset of political ad spend with no restrictions on use; Meta grants no licence and bans automated collection, so its report is downloaded by hand and only an aggregate summary is published here. Google records spend in US dollars, rounds it and converts at a fixed rate — every figure is a multiple of $200, so read it as indicative. The match from advertiser to party is the set of rules in data/advertising/parties.json, reviewable in a diff; a name matching nothing is not guessed at.
- Google only. Meta is a large platform for New Zealand political and issue advertising and is reported separately.
- Advertiser totals are rounded and currency-converted from US dollars. Per-advertisement figures, which Google publishes as ranges, are not included.
- Google publishes no regional breakdown for New Zealand — only a national total.
- Google deletes this data seven years after an election, so the earliest figures will disappear from the source over time.
- Spend is what Google was paid to show advertisements. It is not a campaign's total advertising budget, and not its total expenditure.
- Most spend here is not by a political party — broadcasters (TVNZ is the single largest advertiser), the Electoral Commission and advocacy groups run issue ads too. Only clear party advertising is attributed to a party; the share matched is shown.
- Party figures are campaign advertising by the party's verified advertiser account. Advertising placed under an individual candidate's own name is not attributed to a party, so party totals are a floor.
- This counts party campaign advertising. Taxpayer-funded parliamentary communications — ads disclaimed 'Parliamentary Service on behalf of ...' — are excluded as a separate category, so a party that advertises heavily through the Parliamentary Service shows a smaller figure here than its total presence on the platform.
- Advertising placed under an individual candidate's or MP's own name, with no party in the disclaimer, is not attributed to a party (there is no candidate-to-party roster here). Party totals are therefore a floor, not a ceiling, and the matched share shows how much is captured.
- Meta only. Google is reported separately.
- Meta reports 'all dates' as a single lifelong total, with no weekly or monthly series, so there is no time trend here as there is for Google.
- A bound, not a number: 13,932 advertisers are reported only as spending '≤$100'. Their exact spend is unknown, so it is left out of the total — which therefore slightly understates the true figure.
- Meta warns its own figures are estimates that can lag by up to 48 hours and may differ from its Ads Manager, and are refreshed here by hand rather than on a schedule.
- Spend is what Meta was paid to show advertisements to New Zealanders. It is not a campaign's total advertising budget.
Sources: Google Political Ads Transparency (No restrictions on use (Google political ads dataset terms)); Meta Ad Library Report, New Zealand, as at 2026-07-19. Google data updated 2026-07-23.